Buy tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/thamecinema
Greetings.
Our next film is Zone of Interest screening on 13 October in support of Thame Museum’s History Week.
Sunday, October 13th, 7pm
Zone of Interest
UK / USA / Poland, 2023, 105 minutes, 12 certificate
Directed by Jonathan Glazer, Starring Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel
Jonathan Glazer’s searing and exceptional film is one that will stay with you. It is, superficially, a story of a middle class aspirational marriage. He is an ambitious man with his eye on a bigger prize – he is getting noticed by the Big Boss for his diligent application and efficiency in his day job. She runs their spacious and comfortable home, tends to her growing family, worries about the children’s education, deals with the servants and relatives. She organises small celebrations for his birthday. She is justly proud of her garden, her labour of love that flourishes in the warm Polish sunshine and the enriched soil. She is happy that they have found a place to live that will serve their family well; she resists his suggestions that they may have to move for his work. They enjoy being close to a river, and the frequent perks of his job. The film follows their rather banal lives, day to day, apparently nothing seismic going on.
But…the husband is Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, the Boss is Hitler, the perks are the possessions taken from murdered prisoners, the efficiency is in numbers of people killed, the house is immediately adjacent to the death camp, the soil enriched by ash from its ovens. The film is so chilling precisely because it does not show any of this explicitly – it hints at it in the children’s play, or the occasional vicious aside to a servant, or a lipstick found in the pocket of an expensive fur coat. Hedwig’s mother is the one character who does say it out loud when she visits, musing on the fate of a woman she once worked for, and disturbed at night by the sound of the furnaces. It is through the Oscar winning sound design, in particular, that we are reminded of what is happening just over that wall; it is the sound that conveys the films rage and fury.
This is a film that captures indelibly the banality of evil and the capacity of people to live with, embrace and normalise unimaginable atrocity that is happening in plain sight. This is history, but the film invites us to consider multiple other occasions in the recent past – or present – when people make the same accommodations. Arguably the most unforgettable film of the year. Watch the trailer here.
Buy tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/thamecinema
